Lifeboat Foundation

A schism lies at the heart of the field of artificial intelligence. Since its inception, the field has been defined by an intellectual tug-of-war between two opposing philosophies: connectionism and symbolism. These two camps have deeply divergent visions as to how to “solve” intelligence, with differing research agendas and sometimes bitter relations.

Today, connectionism dominates the world of AI. The emergence of deep learning, which is a quintessentially connectionist technique, has driven the worldwide explosion in AI activity and funding over the past decade. Deep learning’s recent accomplishments have been nothing short of astonishing. Yet as deep learning spreads, its limitations are becoming increasingly evident.

If AI is to reach its full potential going forward, a reconciliation between connectionism and symbolism is essential. Thankfully, in both academic and commercial settings, research efforts that fuse these two traditionally opposed approaches are beginning to emerge. Such synthesis may well represent the future of artificial intelligence.

Law enforcement and technologists have been arguing over encryption controls for more than two decades. On one side are privacy advocates and tech bosses like Apple’s chief executive, Timothy D. Cook, who believe people should be able to have online communications free of snooping. On the other side are law enforcement and some lawmakers, who believe tough encryption makes it impossible to track child predators, terrorists and other criminals.

After years of on-and-off debate over nearly snoop-proof security, the industry is girding for new pressure from law enforcement around the world.

Bursts of media coverage of retracted scientific articles and failures to replicate and reproduce scientific findings have led to a widespread sense of crisis in the familiar forms of scientific knowledge production and communication. Is the language of crisis warranted, or is this how science has always worked? How are technological changes in the communication of scientific results affecting the process of scientific knowledge production? Are there genuine knowledge crises in certain scientific fields (such as medicine or social science)? What solutions are available for these problems, and how can new scholars move forward with both confidence and integrity in this environment?

This program will be appropriate to all campus personnel and community members interested in how the process of scientific communication may affect their role as producers and consumers of scientific knowledge.

Well this is cool #climatesolutions

Weighing just 300 kilograms, the Pipistrel Alpha Electro is an ultra-light electric aircraft and can be bought for just $140,000.

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Just fire everybody?

Everything in our Universe is held together or pushed apart by four fundamental forces: gravity, electromagnetism, and two nuclear interactions. Physicists now think they’ve spotted the actions of a fifth physical force emerging from a helium atom.

It’s not the first time researchers claim to have caught a glimpse of it, either. A few years ago, they saw it in the decay of an isotope of beryllium. Now the same team has seen a second example of the mysterious force at play — and the particle they think is carrying it, which they’re calling X17.

If the discovery is confirmed, not only could learning more about X17 let us better understand the forces that govern our Universe, it could also help scientists solve the dark matter problem once and for all.

US Defence Secretary Mark Esper on Friday ruled out allegations of unfair competition in the awarding of a US$10-billion cloud computing contract to Microsoft.

“I am confident it was conducted freely and fairly, without any type of outside influence,” Esper told a news conference in Seoul, South Korea.

Formally called the Joint Enterprise Defence Infrastructure, or JEDI, the contract was awarded to Microsoft on 25 October, and the lucrative deal could span 10 years.

What could the UK’s recent investment announcement mean for the future of sustainable energy?
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There are many directions we could go when it comes to the future of sustainable energy—but the UK made a bold move when it announced a huge investment (220 million pounds huge) in a prototype fusion power facility that could be functioning as a commercial power plant by 2040.

Continue reading “The UK Is Racing to Build the World’s First Commercial Fusion Power Plant” »